Add $341 million for schools in ’08, consultants urge
Posted on Friday, July 21, 2006
Consultants tentatively recommended Thursday that another $ 341 million be spent on public schools in Arkansas for 2007-08.
Tom Kimbrell, executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, called the increase "a lot of money"and doubted the Legislature would go for it.
"That's going to be difficult public relations,"Kimbrell said after a meeting of the legislative Joint Adequacy Study Oversight Subcommittee.
It was just in April that the Legislature met in special session to approve more money for schools to respond to a Supreme Court decision. Legislators emphasized they're still studying the consultants' preliminary figures.
The final recommendation by consultants Allan Odden of the University of Wisconsin and Larry Picus of the University of Southern California is due Sept. 1.
The bulk of the new money proposed would be $ 237 million in additional "per-student"funding, which is state and local dollars deemed sufficient for an "adequate"education that the state Supreme Court says is required.
The proposed increase in per-student funding is largely driven by non-instructional needs, such as central office administrative expenses and building upkeep.
That's despite the consultants telling legislators June 15 that Arkansas public schools need to spend more on instruction. They said that although the state has sent more money to the schools the percentage spent on instruction has continued to hover around 60 percent, about the national average.
Odden acknowledged that the administrative costs in the proposed funding may be too high.
"We need feedback on the amount needed for the central office,"Odden said. "That could very well be not appropriate. That could be a Cadillac for Arkansas. We don't want to be driving a Cadillac. This comes from other research. We didn't analyze this in the field. My guess is this is more generous than needed."
This is the first attempt at calculating administrative costs for the state funding formula.
Odden said those costs are difficult to figure because of varying school sizes and local management strategies.
The consultants didn't break down how much of the recommended funding for 2007-08 would be local and how much would come from the state.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said he believed that the $ 237 million was "fairly close"to the increase needed. But he cautioned that it relies on teacher salary figures that are uncertain because the state hasn't compiled the average for 2005-06.
Richard Wilson, assistant director at the Bureau of Legislative Research, said the $ 237 million may be about $ 19 million too high. He said it doesn't appear the consultants took into account funding approved in April to help districts offset retirement contributions.
The consultants assumed a state average teacher salary of $ 43, 130 for 2007-08, adding 3. 5 percent to an assumed average salary for 2006-07 of $ 41, 672.
Argue noted that districts get the same funding per pupil regardless of their teacher salary expenses. He said there ought to be a way for the state to withhold some funds if districts don't dedicate certain amounts to teacher salaries. Otherwise, he said districts can hire mostly younger teachers for less money and use state dollars for other things, such as administration or athletics.
"Do we really want to be putting the incentive out there to discourage tenure ?"Argue said.
The consultants' recommendations would bring foundation funding up to about $ 2. 77 billion a year, Wilson said.
The foundation amount is based on increasing the per pupil foundation amount of $ 5, 662 in 2006-07 to $ 6, 148 in 2007-08. That's an 8. 6 percent increase.
Argue said he didn't know whether the state could afford it.
Sen. Shane Broadway, D-Bryant, who has been a leading figure in shaping state education funding legislation the last few years, said the state must fund whatever amount the Legislature settles on as necessary for an adequate education, on the basis of input from the consultants and others.
"Or else you'll be back in court,"Broadway said.
The Supreme Court in 2002 in a lawsuit filed by the now-defunct Lake View district in Phillips County found the state's funding of public schools to be inadequate and inequitable. The court lauded the state's response in 2004, which included a $ 380 million a year tax increase for schools.
But in December 2005, the court faulted the state for freezing per student funding and not doing a second adequacy study before the 2005 regular session.
During the April special session, the Legislature and Gov. Mike Huckabee approved an additional $ 57 million for public schools this school year and another $ 87 million in 2006-07.
There are about 450, 000 students and about 35, 000 teachers in Arkansas' public school system in 245 districts. The consultants have said total education revenue - from federal, state and local sources - in Arkansas has increased from $ 2. 2 billion in 1995-96 to $ 4 billion in 2004-05.
The Legislature will decide public school funding for 2007-08 and 2008-09, as well as many other issues, when it meets in regular session starting Jan. 8, 2007.
Sen. Dave Bisbee, R-Rogers, questioned the foundation funding percentage increase being greater than the rate of inflation.
The other component of the overall $ 341 million is a $ 104 million increase from the current year's $ 149 million for programs meant to help lowincome students.
The increase comes from raising the base amount districts get per student from $ 480 to $ 542 for those programs. Also, the consultants would change the way additional money flows to districts that have a higher concentration of low-income students. But there was no agreement among legislators on how to do that.
Regardless, Odden, the consultant, said the Legislature should come up with more regulations to police how districts spend that extra money for low-income students.
"Right now, it's pretty much another general aid category,"he said.
Argue said that additional money for low-income students could be phased in.
The foundation recommendation includes an average of $ 289 per pupil for transportation, which is the inflation-adjusted actual cost of transportation for 2004-05.
Odden said the state could take that amount out of the formula and reimburse each district's actual transportation costs. But he said the state should eventually develop a transportation funding formula to promote efficient use of those dollars by districts.
Kimbrell, of the administrators group, said superintendents haven't had a chance to digest the report and expect to offer the committee their thoughts next month. Initially, he said he has some concerns that there may not be enough consideration given to the need for funding assistant principals.
A state law passed during the 2003-04 special session requires the state to do an "adequacy study"every two years to determine educational costs.
Odden said that's unnecessary. He said it could be done every four years, allowing for inflationary increases for years in between. The study is costing the state $ 450, 000.
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